Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication technique of communicating with an external device.
Description of the Related Art
A personal communication terminal apparatus is known to perform short distance wireless communication in addition to communication via a communication network. A partner communication apparatus of short distance wireless communication is, for example, a personal communication terminal apparatus or an MFP (Multi Function Printer), which is known to transmit and receive image data and the like.
Since the personal communication terminal apparatus operates with power accumulated in a battery, it may be powered off during communication. This tendency is strong when, for example, the personal communication terminal apparatus transmits and receives a large amount of data to and from an MFP.
To implement efficient communication in consideration of the communication speed and power consumption, it is known to perform short distance wireless communication using two types of communication methods. This technique is called handover in which information necessary for the second short distance wireless communication method of a communication target apparatus is transmitted and received by the first short distance wireless communication method with low power consumption, thereby performing high-speed communication by the second short distance wireless communication method using the information. The first short distance wireless communication method is, for example, NFC (Near Field Communication), and the second short distance wireless communication method is, for example, Bluetooth® or wireless LAN.
In recent years, wireless power exchange is coming into practical use. In one example, the international standard Qi for wireless charging has been stipulated by Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) (http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/jp).
As a technique of communicating print data from a terminal apparatus to a printing apparatus while wirelessly supplying power from the printing apparatus to the terminal apparatus, there is known a technique of specifying, as a communication partner, the printing apparatus serving as a power supply source, and wirelessly transmitting captured image data using the ID of the specified printing apparatus (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-229583).
In a method disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-229583, however, power is supplied prior to printing, and thus the charging function of the printing apparatus is occupied by the terminal apparatus which is being charged.
As a result, if a first terminal having a lower priority level (requiring only charging) with respect to the printing apparatus is connected to the printing apparatus, a second terminal having a higher priority level (requiring transmission of captured image data to a printer dock) cannot receive power. It is, therefore, impossible to avoid a risk that the battery of the second terminal runs out.